Science & Technology 1400 Independence Ave, SW

Monitoring Programs Division Room 0611, Stop 0276

 Washington, DC 20250

PDP April through September 2020 Program Plan, v1.0 Page 1 

February 14, 2020 

TO: See Distribution List 

FROM: Brenda Foos

Director, Monitoring Programs Division

 

SUBJECT: Program Plan, April through September 2020 – Pesticide Data Program, 

Version 1.0

This Program Plan serves as the current Statement of Work for the period April through 

September 2020 for each of the States participating in the Pesticide Data Program (PDP). 

Aspects of the Plan have been discussed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 

(EPA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continuing collaboration 

with PDP. I look forward to working with each of you on the activities described in this 

Program Plan.

I. ADMINISTRATIVE UPDATES

A. Summary Status: 

The 2018 PDP Annual Summary and dataset were posted to the PDP website on 

December 10, 2019. Printed copies of the 2018 Annual Summary should be available in 

March 2020. Drafting of the 2019 Annual Summary will begin when all of the 2019 

results have been submitted via the Remote Data Entry (RDE) tool.

B. Cooperative Agreements/Financial: 

Final Cooperative Agreements for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 have been issued to all PDP 

participating States. 

C. Program Meetings:

PDP Federal/State Meeting:

The 2020 meeting is scheduled for March in Tallahassee, Florida. Attendees will include 

PDP Administrative Managers, Sampling Managers, Technical Program Managers, and 

Quality Assurance Officers, as well as representatives from the Florida Department of 

Agriculture and Consumer Services, USDA, EPA, FDA, and industry.
PDP April through September 2020 Program Plan, v1.0 Page 2

D. Advisory Committees:

Sampling Advisory Group: Members of the Sampling Advisory Group (SAG) are Don 

Gallegos (Colorado), Nathan Chambers (Washington) and Barbara Sparkman (Texas). 

Don Gallegos serves as the Presiding Member of the SAG.

Technical Advisory Group: Members of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) are Gail 

Parker (Florida) and Hugh Robinson (Texas). Gail Parker serves as the Presiding 

Member of the TAG.

E. PDP Fiscal Year 2020 Proficiency Testing Program: The PDP FY2020

Proficiency Testing (PT) program schedule (v 1.0) is posted on the PDP Extranet site.

Refer to SOPs PDP-ADMIN and PDP-QC for PT program requirements, reporting 

procedures, acceptability criteria, and requirements for potential follow-up actions.

F. Standard Operating Procedures:

SOPs to be Released April 1, 2020

• PDP-Glossary: Glossary

SOPs to be Released June 1, 2020

• PDP-ADMIN: Administrative Procedures for the Pesticide Data Program

SOPs to be Released September 1, 2020

• PDP-QC: Chemical Compounds, PDP Commodity Grouping, Method Validation 

and Quality Control

G. Electronic Transfer of Data

RDE Version Upgrades:

The Monitoring Programs Division (MPD) staff is developing a Build 3 upgrade to the

local/distributed RDE application to fix some identified glitches and to add new features 

suggested by the laboratories. The upgrade process will be handled by replacing the 

front-end database file with a new version of that file on every lab computer that has the 

Local RDE app installed. The new database file will be extracted from a ZIP file that is 

downloaded from the USDA CloudVault site using a provided link. The Build 3 upgrade 

is expected to be released by February 28, 2020.

H. Presumptive Tolerance Violation Reporting

Data for Presumptive Tolerance Violations (PTVs) are communicated to FDA and EPA 

on a monthly basis. FDA utilizes the PTV reports in choosing commodities that require 

extra sampling. EPA uses the data for dietary risk assessments and pesticide registration 
PDP April through September 2020 Program Plan, v1.0 Page 3 

review decisions. MPD is also providing the data to USDA’s Office of Pest Management 

Policy (OPMP) for communication to grower groups, the Foreign Agricultural Service 

(FAS) to assist in facilitating the export of domestic commodities, and the National 

Organic Program (NOP) to inform them of any potential PTVs detected on claimed 

organic samples. PDP States may request a copy of the monthly PTV report by 

contacting MPD.

An updated tolerance table was emailed in January 2020 containing tolerances for all 

commodities in the program at this time, including those that entered the program in 

January 2020. The table shows tolerances (and FDA action levels for organochlorines) 

for pesticides on all current PDP commodities. With over 700 pesticides and metabolites, 

there is information for over 10,000 pesticide/commodity pairings. This table includes 

permanent, interim, regional, and section 18 emergency tolerances as stated in the 

electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR) or the Informa Agrow U.S. Tolerance 

Tracker online version. Blank spaces in the table indicate that no tolerance is established 

or referenced in the U.S. Tolerance Tracker or the eCFR, part 40, section 180.

II. PROGRAM SAMPLING AND TESTING UPDATES

A. Sampling Changes and Rotations: Shipping charts are distributed quarterly to 

Sampling Managers by MPD. The draft shipping charts for the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 

calendar year 2020 will follow this document. Final shipping dates and fact sheets will be

issued under separate cover.

Sampling Deletions

Kiwi collection ends March 31, 2020. 

Sampling Additions

Carrots will be added April 1, 2020. Carrots will remain in the program for two years. 

All samples will be shipped to the Michigan (MI1) laboratory. Refer to the current 

commodity fact sheet for sampling selection, packaging, and shipping guidance.

Sampling Continuations

Apple juice, bananas, sweet bell peppers, broccoli, cantaloupe, cauliflower, collards, 

eggplant, mandarins (tangerine), orange juice, radish, tomato paste, and winter squash

continue to be sampled. Collards, orange juice, and tomato paste end September 30, 2020. 

PDP Sampling Commodity Counts

October 1, 2019 through December 31, 2019 = 14 commodities

• Remove basil, canned peas, rice, canned spinach and frozen strawberries

• Add cauliflower, collards, mandarin (tangerine), orange juice and tomato paste
PDP April through September 2020 Program Plan, v1.0 Page 4 

January 1, 2020 through March 31, 2020 = 14 commodities

• Remove dried garbanzo beans, hot peppers, mustard greens, and oats

• Add apple juice, broccoli, eggplant, and winter squash

April 1, 2020 through September 30 2020 = 14 commodities 

• Remove kiwi

• Add carrots

B. Testing Deletions and Changes:

Testing Deletions

Kiwi collection ends March 31, 2020. This ends multi-residue testing of kiwi by the 

Michigan (MI1) laboratory.

Testing Additions

Carrots will be added April 1, 2020. Carrots will remain in the program for two years. 

Multi-residue testing will be performed by the Michigan (MI1) laboratory. Commodity 

specific requirements regarding analytes of interest are listed in the memorandum posted 

to the PDP Extranet site.

Testing Continuations

Apple juice, bananas, sweet bell peppers, broccoli, cantaloupe, cauliflower, collards, 

eggplant, mandarins (tangerine), orange juice, radish, tomato paste, and winter squash

continue to be sampled. Collards, orange juice, and tomato paste end September 30, 2020. 

C. Web Site for PDP Information:

For Pesticide Data Program information check out our Internet Web Site:

http://www.ams.usda.gov/pdp

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